


Missing Lightning

by ao_no_senshi



Category: Ultraman Gaia
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-06
Updated: 2011-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-23 17:58:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/253199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ao_no_senshi/pseuds/ao_no_senshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gamu's used to things going wrong, he's just not used to feeling helpless while they do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missing Lightning

_Two missed check-ins._ The words ran through Gamu's mind over and over as he stared at the computer console in front of him, forcing himself to concentrate on the information instead of worrying about the fact that Team Lightning was missing somewhere over Nagoya.

 _Two missed check-ins._ It wasn't like Katsumi to miss even one check-in, let alone a second; what could have happened? What was causing the anomaly Lightning had been sent to investigate? Was that what was behind Lightning's radio silence or had something else happened to cause that? Times like this he wished he still had the power of Gaia because it meant he'd be able to fly there and find out for himself what was going on, instead he could only continue to scan and try to extrapolate likely locations from the point the transponder signals in the jets disappeared. Well, that and wait as Team Seagull busied themselves in the Peace Carrier, preparing anything they might conceivably need when they took off.

 _Two missed check-ins._ He'd be fine. They'd all be fine. There'd be a perfectly good reason for their radio silence and all three of them would come home in one piece, safe and sound and he could berate Katsumi for worrying him over nothing. He'd be fine. He would. Gamu felt his grip on the edge of the console tightening, cold and hard under his palms, the edges digging in sharply. He didn't care.

"-gawara to the Aerial Base, can you read me? Repeat, this is Ogawara calling the Aerial base, can you--"

Gamu's head snapped up as Ogawara-san's voice came over the communication system and Georgie slammed a hand over her controls in her haste to open a channel back.

"This is the Aerial Base, we read you."

"Oh, thank god," he groaned, his relief more than evident. "I was beginning to think I'd never get through."

"Officer Ogawara." That was the Commander, he'd made his way over to Atsuko and Georgie and was leaning over their console, one hand on each chair and he leant forward. "What's the situation?"

"Something brought us down just outside Nagoya," Ogawara-san replied promptly, the tiredness in his voice vanishing as he shifted into Report Mode. "Some kind of energy burst, I think. It came out of nowhere and we didn't have time to react." Which said a lot about how quickly it had happened, Gamu thought as he listened. Lightning weren't nicknamed the Top Gun team for no reason: their reflexes were the best. "We regrouped but we're not in good shape, Commander. Our engines are fried and even if they weren't we couldn't fly out from where we landed."

Ishimuro nodded slowly, but Gamu couldn't make out his expression from here, couldn't figure out what the man was thinking. Not that he could always do that reliably, even when he _could_ see the older man's face. And really, all this was very well but Ogawara-san hadn't actually said anything Gamu was waiting for.

"What about the other members of Lightning?"

There was a moment of silence and Gamu's gut clenched with worry. Ogawara-san had said they'd regrouped, which suggested all three of them were okay, but the silence was unnerving. "Kitada's got a dislocated shoulder," Ogawara-san said eventually. "We managed to get it back in but he's still going to need a doctor to look at it."

And what about Katusmi? Gamu thought impatiently, willing Ogawara-san to get on with it. He liked Kitada-san well enough but Katsumi was the one he was worried about right now.

"Kajio-san didn't break anything but it's possible he's concussed. He was still pretty dazed when I left to try and find somewhere the comms would work."

The relief on hearing Katusmi hadn't broken anything rapidly vanished at the mention of a possible concussion, and Gamu's hands tightened around the console again. Concussions were not good things to have and no, Katsumi would definitely not be able to fly back if he was concussed.

"Understood," Ishimuro said. "Georgie, Atsuko, have you got a location for Ogawara yet?"

Atsuko rattled off the co-ordinates and the Commander nodded. "Excellent. Ogawara, how far did you have to go to find a signal?"

Gamu listened intently as Ogawara-san described his hike to finding a signal, adding all the data into the simulations he'd been running, narrowing down the location even further. It sounded like Ogawara-san had travelled a fair distance from where he'd left Katsumi and Kitada-san, but with his descriptions and XIG's tracking technology he was feeling a bit more confident about finding Katsumi soon.

"Alright," Ishimuro said finally, once Ogawara-san was finished. "We've got it. Peace Carrier will be leaving soon to come and get you."

"Thank you, sir," Ogawara-san sighed in relief. "Do you want me to stay here or should I go back to the others?"

"Stay where you are," Ishimuro told him. "Peace Carrier won't be taking any chances with whatever brought you down."

"Roger."

"Tsutsumi."

"On my way," the Chief replied, already making for the door. He paused by Gamu's console and raised his eyebrows. "What are you waiting for, Gamu? You coming or not?"

"I'm coming," Gamu said hurriedly, pushing himself away from the console and following the man out of the Command Room. Like he was going to be left behind during something like this.

"Atsuko," he heard just before the doors closed behind them. "Get me Senuma on the comm. He can take his team there over land."

***

Never had a flight seemed to take so long, Gamu thought glumly as he kept a close watch on the distance to Nagoya and noting that it wasn't getting shorter quickly enough for his worry to start abating. Chief Tsutsumi remained tactfully silent as he repeatedly ran diagnostics to distract himself. Officially, the higher ups didn't know anything about him and Katsumi, but unofficially it was an open secret that everyone knew about. If Katsumi had taken any flack for it he hadn't mentioned it to Gamu, but for his part Gamu found the arrangement worked well enough and it hadn't caused him any problems so far and at times like this it actually worked in his favour.

"We just passed the mountains," he said eventually. "We should reach Ogawara-san soon."

"Roger that," Chief Tsutsumi replied, flicking the on-board comm system on. "Koyama, we'll be reaching the drop-off point soon."

"Understood," Koyama-leader said a moment later. "Seagull's ready when you are, Chief."

A few minutes later they were circling the co-ordinates Atsuko had given them and Gamu could just about see Ogawara-san waving up at them.

"Don't even think about it," the Chief said as Gamu went to get up. "Let Seagull do their job, Gamu. They'll get Kajio and Kitada back here soon enough."

It was the waiting that was the problem, though. Ogawara-san had taken Team Seagull back the way he'd come and they'd lost contact soon after that. Whatever had been blocking their signals before was definitely still in effect and it was blanketing the whole area, meaning Gamu couldn't pick up a thing. He hoped Senuma-san would have better luck getting his team in on the roads than they had with an airborne team.

"Koyama to Peace Carrier," came the eventual call and Gamu straightened in his seat expectantly.

"This is Peace Carrier," Chief Tsutsumi replied.

"Everyone's accounted for, sir, we're almost there."

Gamu sagged in relief and this time the Chief didn't make any move to stop him when he unbuckled himself from the seat and darted out the door. He didn't have long to wait, although it still seemed like forever as he hovered impatiently in the doorway, straining his eyes for the first sight of them and waving madly when they came into view. Katsumi, he was pleased to see, was walking under his own power, albeit with an arm around Koyama-leader's shoulder to keep him upright. There was a bandage around his head, which wasn't encouraging, but he was conscious and able to walk so it probably wasn't too bad. He hoped. Kitada-san had an arm around Ogawara-san as well, with Michael and Matsuo-san walking along behind them.

Hurrying over to them, Gamu nodded politely at Kitada-san as he passed him but he was more interested in the man behind him, slipping Katsumi's free arm around his shoulders, even though it really wasn't necessary. Koyama-leader smiled at him and let go, striding on ahead and letting Gamu support Katsumi the rest of the way.

"You really need to stop hitting your head," he muttered and Katsumi laughed quietly.

"You make it sound like I do it a lot."

Well, if he'd been dazed before like Ogawara-san said, he wasn't any longer. That was probably a good sign.

"Often enough," Gamu retorted. Alright, maybe not that often; it probably just _seemed_ more frequent because his relationship with Katsumi was different to the one he had with the other XIG pilots.

"I'll be fine."

"You're concussed."

"I am not. Probably."

"Mm hm."

"I'm not."

"We'll see."

" _Gamu._ "

"You're seeing the doctors first thing when we get back to base." He would not be budged on that point, no matter how Katsumi tried to convince him otherwise. So determined was he to stand by that, that he was surprised when Katsumi didn't actually fight him on it.

"Fine," was the muttered grumble, Katsumi's head bumping gently against his own. "Stop nagging."

"I'm not nagging," Gamu replied loftily. "I'm expressing concern."

"Is that what they call it now?"

"Shut up."

***

"Satisfied now?" Katsumi asked pointedly after the doctor gave him the all-clear and the freedom to leave the infirmary without being chased by nurses wielding needles or other paraphanalia of doom.

Gamu ignored the question and sat down next to him on the bed. "You still need to stop hitting your head," he retorted. That point still stood, whether Katsumi was concussed or not.

"You're not going to drop that, are you?"

"Nope." He wasn't going to kiss Katsumi here, he told himself. No matter how close they were and how tempting it was now that they finally had a moment alone and he could reassure himself that Katsumi was right there and not about to disappear on him again. It would be unprofessional anyway and Katsumi would probably get pissy about it and... and suddenly his nose was bumping gently against Katsumi's and he could feel Katsumi's breath warm against his face and okay, maybe he _was_ going to kiss him here after all. Katsumi's fingers brushed against his cheek and it didn't seem like he was going to put a stop to this while they were still in the infirmary instead of either of their quarters.

A sudden burst of coughing broke into the moment, followed by Kitada-san and Ogawara-san starting up a loud conversation about a recent baseball game or something and Gamu pulled back, slipping off the bed to stand next to it instead of sitting on it, hoping he wasn't looking as chagrined as he felt. Judging by the expression on Katsumi's face the other man was having similar thoughts, although Katsumi was better at the professional mask than he was and could slip it on and off at will, as he was doing right now. And just in time as well, as the Commander walked into the infirmary and over to where they were waiting.

"What's the verdict?" he asked, eyes skimming over Katsumi assessingly and Katsumi's shoulders straightened even more.

"All clear," he replied. "No concussion, so I'm okay to leave."

The Commander's mouth twitched upwards slightly. "What are you still doing here, then?" he asked. "Go back to your quarters, get some rest."

"Yes, sir," Katsumi saluted, then promptly winced. He might not be concussed, but he was probably still pretty sore, Gamu thought in concern as he pushed himself off the bed.

The Commander's gaze switched to Gamu and again there was the small smile. "Make sure he doesn't fall over on the way, Gamu."

Gamu grinned and saluted cheerfully. "Yes, sir."

"For the record," Katsumi said when they were safely out of the infirmary and their commanding officer's hearing, "I don't need a babysitter."

"I know."

"Just so that's clear."

"It's very clear," Gamu assured him with a grin. "I'm not going to babysit you, Katsumi-san." He just wasn't going to ignore what was a thinly-veiled order to look after him, that was all. A half-smile told him Katsumi knew exactly what he was thinking and Gamu beamed back, twining his fingers together behind his back as they walked, a careful amount of distance between them that in no way diminished the comfortable atmosphere.

Katsumi entered the room first, letting go of the door as Gamu followed him in and he caught hold of the handle to pull it closed behind them. The moment it was closed Gamu had Katsumi's fingers in his hair and Katsumi's mouth on his and he slipped his arms around the other man's waist, gently tugging him closer.

"You're staying tonight, right?" Katsumi breathed a few minutes later, their foreheads resting against each other as they slowly got their breath back.

"I had no intention of leaving," Gamu agreed, toying with the hem of Katsumi's uniform shirt.

"Good." Katsumi reluctantly pulled away and made for the small set of drawers next to his bed. "You should start keeping pyjamas here or something," he muttered. "I have twice the amount of laundry I used to since you started sleeping here."

Gamu laughed at that. "Maybe I will." He managed to catch the sweatpants tossed his way but the t-shirt landed on his head, obscuring his view of the room. "Hey!"

"Sorry." Gamu pulled the t-shirt off his face to find that Katsumi looked just as amused as he sounded and he frowned.

"You are not."

"No," Katsumi agreed easily, shrugging off his jacket. "I'm really not. You should have seen the look on your face, Gamu."

Gamu pouted some more but the pout turned back into a frown as Katsumi pulled his shirt off, revealing the neat set of bandages wrapped around his ribs. "I thought you hadn't broken anything," he said accusingly. Why had the doctors let him out of the infirmary like that?

"Hm?" Katsumi held the shirt loosely in his hands, giving Gamu a confused look before looking down at himself. "Oh, this? I bruised my ribs with that landing, that's all. They're not broken, Gamu, I'm just going to be sore for a while." He grimaced and bundled up the white shirt, tossing it into the laundry basket on the far side of the room with an underarm throw before swiping up the well-worn red shirt he slept in. "Between me and Kitada, Lightning's not going to be flying anywhere for a while either."

Much as he knew how Katsumi loved flying, Gamu couldn't help but be glad Lightning wasn't going straight back on the flight roster. At least that would give them some time to heal up and him some time to stop worrying Katsumi was going to disappear every time he was out of his sight for five minutes. He sighed and began getting ready for bed himself, folding his clothes neatly and resting them on top of the bedside table. He'd always known this could happen, had known it when he and Katsumi had started dating and he also knew this was what had led to the eventual breakdown of Katsumi's relationship with Atsuko's sister. He didn't want the same thing to happen to them, so he was going to keep his worries to himself and let everything sort itself out.

"You don't have to pretend you weren't worried, you know," Katsumi said in his ear, his arms sneaking around Gamu's waist. "I'd be pissed if you weren't, actually."

"I always knew this could happen," he said softly. "That one day you could go out and not come back. I thought I would handle it better, that's all."

"You're doing alright from here," Katsumi replied, poking him in the side and Gamu smiled slightly. Easy for him to say, he wasn't inside Gamu's head to see what was going on in there.

"You're supposed to be resting," he said instead and Katsumi huffed in amusement, tucking his chin into the space between Gamu's neck and shoulder.

"I am resting."

"This is cuddling, not resting."

"Your point?"

"Resting usually means lying down." Or sitting down, he conceded. One or the other.

"We can do that too."

"You have bruised ribs."

"Don't sleep on top of me then."

Gamu smiled again and let himself be tugged over to the bed. There were still things not being said that they should probably address later, but for now he was content to just settle down and know that he wouldn't be waking up alone in the morning.


End file.
